Mangala
Mind games of the Turkic world: Mangala, Nine Men's Morris, Toguz Korgool.
How to play
Tap a pit on your side: the stones are sown one by one to the right, and the first stone stays in the pit you took them from. If your last stone lands in your store, you play again. If it makes an opponent's pit even, you take that pit's stones; if it lands in an empty pit of yours, you take the stones opposite. The player whose pits empty first also takes the opponent's remaining stones; the most stones in the store wins. In Nine Men's Morris line up three stones; in Toguz Korgool collect 82.
How to play Mangala: a detailed guide to Mangala, Nine Men's Morris and Toguz Korgool
Mangala on CetinsGame brings together three strategy games of the Turkic world: Mangala, played on a wooden board with pits; Nine Men's Morris, played on a board of lines and known in Turkey as Dokuz Taş; and Toguz Korgool, the nine-pit game of the Kyrgyz and the Kazakhs. You can play against the computer at three levels, meet nine sages from camp to camp on the Highland Road, or play with a friend on the same device. This guide explains the game's screens, its rules and the ways of thinking that help you win.
Goal
In Mangala the goal is to collect more stones in your store than your opponent; whoever takes 25 of the 48 stones has certainly won. In Toguz Korgool the first to collect 82 of the 162 stones wins. In Nine Men's Morris you don't collect stones: you win by reducing your opponent to two stones or leaving them with no legal move.
How to play
In Mangala and Toguz Korgool, when it's your turn, tap a pit with stones on your own (bottom) side. The stones are sown one by one to the right at a speed you can follow; the first stone stays in the pit you took them from. The number of stones is shown next to each pit, so you don't have to count them. If you hold a pit (or hover over it with the mouse on a computer), the pit where the last stone will land lights up; if you lift your finger, no move is made. This preview is off on Hard.
In Nine Men's Morris you first place stones by tapping one of the glowing empty points. Once all stones are placed, you tap one of your stones and then an adjacent empty point along a line. When you form a mill, the opponent's stones that can be taken glow with a red ring; tap one to take it.
When you hold your phone upright, the Mangala and Toguz boards turn vertical: your pits run from top to bottom on the left, and your store sits at the bottom.
Modes and levels
- Highland Road: nine sages in three chapters. First Mangala (Kerem the Shepherd, Mother Gülizar the Felt-Maker, Osman Ağa, the Headman), then Nine Men's Morris (Hasan the Farrier, Rıza the Blacksmith, Selim Baba the Innkeeper), then Toguz Korgool (Aysulu, Bakyt, Aksakal Mambet). The first sage of each chapter teaches the rules.
- Quick Game: you choose the game, the level (Easy, Medium, Hard) and, in Mangala, the length of the match (1, 3 or 5 sets). All three games are open from the start.
- Two players: you play face to face on the same device; the bottom side is player 1, the top side is player 2.
Points, titles and badges
Every match you win earns Wisdom points, and your points never go down when you lose. In Mangala every set and match you win gives points, and in Nine Men's Morris and Toguz Korgool a win or a draw does; Hard gives the most points. Winning without giving your opponent a single set, with 30+ stones per set in Mangala, 100+ stones in Toguz or 7 or more stones left in Nine Men's Morris, counts as a "Clean win" and earns bonus points. On the Highland Road the titles are, in order, Traveller, Mangala Player, Mill Maker, Toguz Master and Sage of Wits. There are 12 badges: for example, getting "play again" 3 times in a row in Mangala, capturing 10 stones in one move or forming 50 mills in total.
Help
Undo takes back your last move and the computer's reply; it is unlimited in Quick Game and can be used 3 times per match on the Highland Road. The What would the sage play? button shows the Hard level's move on the board 3 times per match; you don't have to play it. From the pause menu you can change the stone speed (Slow, Normal, Fast, Instant), the preview, the tips and, in Nine Men's Morris, the flying rule. If you tap the board while stones are being sown, the move skips to the end.
Strategy
The most important skill in Mangala is counting: if the number of stones in a pit equals its distance from your store, the last stone lands in the store and you win an extra move. That is why small numbers in the pits close to your store are valuable. Watch for odd numbers in your opponent's pits; one more stone makes them even. Leaving an empty pit on your side is both an opportunity and a danger: you may capture the big pile opposite it, but your opponent also has to protect the stones piling up across from your empty pit.
In Nine Men's Morris, during the placing phase, room to move matters more than forming mills: stones squeezed into corners get locked in later. The "double mill" setup, which threatens a mill in two directions, is the strongest weapon. In Toguz Korgool, a tuzdik claimed early brings in stones for the whole game; a tuzdik in the left-hand pits, where your opponent's stones pass often, is worth more.
Tips
- Before moving, hold a pit to see where the last stone will land; the preview is on at Easy and Medium.
- A pit with as many stones as its distance from your store earns you an extra move; play the one closest to the store first so the other pits keep their count.
- If you see an odd number (1, 3, 5) in an opponent's pit, look for a way to drop your last stone there.
- Piling up lots of stones on your side can be risky near the end: the opponent whose pits empty first takes them all.
- In Nine Men's Morris, place your first stones on the middles of the sides and on the crossing points; corners have few neighbours and get locked in easily.
- In Nine Men's Morris, if two of your opponent's stones are on a line and the third point is empty, block it first.
- In Toguz Korgool, if you see 2 stones in an opponent's pit, work out whether your last stone can make it 3 and claim a tuzdik.
- When you're stuck, try the "What would the sage play?" button; trying to understand why that move is good is the fastest way to learn.
Mangala and the pit games of the Turkic world
Mangala is a mind game from Anatolia, played with two rows of pits and stones. Today it is taught in Turkish schools in the Mind and Intelligence Games class, and tournaments are held. Toguz Korgool, from the same family, is the game of the Kyrgyz and the Kazakhs; in 2020 it was inscribed together with Mangala on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Dokuz Taş is the Turkish name of Nine Men's Morris, drawn on boards, or even in the dirt, in coffeehouses and village homes.
- Name in Turkey
- Mangala; göçürme in some regions
- Kyrgyz and Kazakh name
- Toguz Korgool; Toğızqumalaq
- UNESCO
- 2020, joint nomination by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey
- Mangala board
- 2 × 6 pits, 2 stores, 48 stones
- Toguz Korgool board
- 2 × 9 pits, 2 kazans, 162 stones
- Nine Men's Morris
- 24 points, 16 mills, 9 stones per player
The family of pit games
Games played by sowing stones into pits are known in many parts of the world. The Turkic world has its own versions of this family: Mangala in Turkey (göçürme in some regions), Toguz Korgool in Kyrgyzstan and Toğızqumalaq in Kazakhstan. "Toguz" and "toğız" correspond to the Turkish word "dokuz", meaning nine; the game takes its name from the nine pits on the board and the nine stones in each pit.
On the UNESCO list
In 2020, following a joint nomination by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey, this family of games was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity under the name "Traditional intelligent and strategy game: Togyz Kumalak, Toguz Korgool, Mangala/Göçürme". According to UNESCO, the game can be played on special boards or in holes dug in the ground; it is considered to develop thinking skills, patience and strategic thinking. The woodworkers and stone carvers who make the boards and stones, as well as jewellers, are also part of this heritage.
At school and in tournaments
In Turkey, Mangala is one of the games taught in the Mind and Intelligence Games class at schools, and students compete in tournaments. Under the tournament rules, the first stone is dropped back into the pit you took it from, a last stone in your store gives you another move, and there are even and empty-pit captures; our game applies these rules. Toguz Korgool has regular championships in Central Asia and in other parts of the world, and it is also part of the World Nomad Games.
Nine Men's Morris
Nine Men's Morris, called Dokuz Taş in Turkish, Mühle in German-speaking countries and jeu du moulin in French-speaking countries, is a very old board game. In Anatolia it is played in coffeehouses, village homes and schoolyards, with the board drawn on paper or scratched into the ground. The rules vary from region to region; the most debated point is whether a player down to three stones may "fly". In our game flying is on, but you can turn it off in Settings.
The story in the game
The story of the Highland Road is fiction: a young traveller who receives an old mangala from their grandma sets off with the camp as it moves up to the highland pastures, and plays a sage in every camp. The names and words of the sages are invented; the seasonal move to the highlands, felt-making, the farrier's craft, caravan inns and the felt tents of the guests from the Ala-Too mountains were chosen to portray the world in which these games have lived.
How Mangala was made
We thought of Mangala not as a single game but as a family. Anatolia's Mangala, the Toguz Korgool of the Kyrgyz and the Kazakhs, and Nine Men's Morris, whose board is often scratched into the ground, are shared mind games of the Turkic world. In 2020 Mangala and Toguz Korgool were inscribed together on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. We wanted to play all three under one roof, with one shared progress.
We started with the rules. For Mangala we followed the tournament rules of Turkey's Mind and Intelligence Games, for Toguz Korgool the common tournament rules of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and for Nine Men's Morris the most widespread rule set in the world. While checking them we also corrected a common mistake: in Mangala it is not "the player who runs out of stones wins"; that player takes the opponent's remaining stones, and the stones in the store decide the winner. In Nine Men's Morris we left the flying rule, which varies from region to region, to the settings.
What we cared about most was the sowing. So that a child just learning Mangala at school can follow every stone, the stones drop one by one at a countable pace and a number sits beside every pit. Hold a pit and the spot where the last stone will land lights up; this preview is there to teach counting, and it is switched off on Hard.
The player's moves and the computer's go through the same rules engine. We tested it with twenty thousand random games across the three games; no move ever broke a rule and no stone was ever lost. We had the three computer levels play hundreds of games against each other and expected the difference to show in the numbers. Hard chooses among moves that are almost as good as the best one, so it never plays the same game twice and can still be beaten.
The Highland Road story is about a migration: a young traveller receives an old mangala from their grandmother and plays nine sages, camp by camp. The boards, characters, scenes and cover were drawn in code, and the sounds and the music in the Uşşak mode were generated in code too. The game was released as version 1.0 on 13 October 2026. Nine Men's Morris and Toguz Korgool also open from their own pages on the site for people who search for them by name; progress is still shared with Mangala.
Frequently asked questions
Which rules does Mangala use?
The Mind and Intelligence Games tournament rules of Turkey: the first stone goes back into the same pit, a last stone in your store means you play again, even and empty-pit captures, and the player whose pits empty first takes the opponent's remaining stones.
How many sets are there in a Mangala match?
In Quick Game you can choose 1, 3 or 5 sets. Winning a set is worth 1 point and a draw half a point; on the Highland Road you play 1 or 3 sets depending on the sage.
Can the computer be beaten on Hard?
Yes. Hard calculates deeply but isn't perfect, and it chooses between good moves that are very close in value. In Nine Men's Morris, if you play well, at least a draw is within reach.
What is the preview, and why isn't it available on Hard?
When you hold a pit, it shows where the last stone will land. It helps you learn to count; on Hard it is off so the calculation is left to you.
How do you claim a tuzdik in Toguz Korgool?
When your last stone makes an opponent's pit exactly 3, that pit becomes your tuzdik. The opponent's 9th pit and the pit in the same position as the opponent's tuzdik can't become a tuzdik; you can claim only one tuzdik per game.
Can I turn off flying in Nine Men's Morris?
Yes. During a game you can turn off "Flying with three" from the menu; the setting applies from the next game.
How do I unlock the next sage on the Highland Road?
Beat the previous sage and the next one unlocks. After Mangala's three sages, the Nine Men's Morris chapter begins, and after those, the Toguz Korgool chapter.
Is undo limited?
It is unlimited in Quick Game and in two-player games. On the Highland Road you have 3 undos per match.
How are Wisdom points calculated?
Wins and draws give points depending on the level, with Hard giving the most. A clean win earns bonus points, and losing never takes points away. Your total goes to the leaderboard.
Is Mangala free?
Yes. No download or account needed; it plays right in your browser. Watching an ad for a hint is always your choice.
Will I lose my progress?
Your progress is saved automatically on this device. Sign in and it moves to your account, so you can continue on any device.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. The game opens full screen on phones; tap the X in the corner to exit. On iPhone use "Add to Home Screen" to play it like an app.
Can I play Mangala offline?
Yes. A game you have opened once is stored on your phone or computer and opens without internet. Leaderboards and cloud saves need a connection.
Which languages are available?
Turkish, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and Russian.
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